Yeah, if Hydra wanted to obtain classified information, why would they need to go to so much trouble?
S.H.I.E.L.D. had been infiltrated like a sieve. Whenever they needed classified intelligence, it could hardly be called stealing—they were just reviewing it!
What was wrong with a director or some Senior Agent conducting a routine review of their own agency's intelligence storage? Wasn't that perfectly normal?!
Besides, much of the intelligence had been obtained firsthand by their own agents. Before it was even uploaded and archived here, it had already been shared internally by them.
"You can't put it that way." Evenson shook his head. "Hydra's cover identities did give them certain conveniences, allowing them to obtain intelligence even faster than Nick Fury."
"But some intelligence was acquired by genuine S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. When Hydra wanted to know about that, they had to find a way to avoid leaving records or signatures."
White Gloves. Skye immediately thought of that term. "Are you saying the Rising Tide Organization had been acting as Hydra's White Gloves for obtaining S.H.I.E.L.D.'s sensitive intelligence?"
That was already terrifying enough. Whenever Skye thought about how she had actually spent so many years helping Hydra commit evil, even if it had all been passive, she still felt deeply guilty.
But Evenson revealed an even uglier reality. "I'm afraid it wasn't just Hydra."
"As the world's largest intelligence hub, S.H.I.E.L.D. stored an enormous amount of secrets. And it wasn't the only one that needed this intelligence—countless intelligence agencies did."
Skye asked, "For example...?"
Evenson listed names one by one. "For example, the CIA, FBI, MI5, MI6, Mossad... You could say that if you read through a complete list of global intelligence agencies, every organization that needed S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets would be on it."
"But even within S.H.I.E.L.D., intelligence was subject to an